Fish and Crackers
by BloodRaevynn
Summary: Quatre and Duo have a snack and learn a little about one another. Friendship fic. [One-Shot]


A/N: Just a bizarre bit of inspiration that struck me out of my can of riga sprats; apparently Shonia's back from vacation. Since I've been dry for more than a month, and desperately longing for something to write (not to mention my mailbox has been looking bleak; reviews may be muse fodder, but that doesn't mean we writers don't crave them too), I decided to spend a few hours hammering this out. Aren't little one-shots fun?  
  
This takes place after Heero self-destructs, while Duo's running around with Quatre. Rating: PG13. There's no yaoi activity of any kind (a rare occurrence for me), but this fic isn't for the homophobic either.  
  
Fish and Crackers  
  
Quatre looked up from the book he was reading, as his fellow Gundam pilot sauntered into the room.  
"Hey, Kat, what'cha doing?" Duo asked, plopping down onto the chaise across from the armchair where the blonde youth sat. "What are you eating?" the braided boy added, flicking his eyes from Quatre to the plate on the table next to the armchair.  
"Riga sprats and pesto on crackers, want some?" Quatre offered, picking up one of the afore-mentioned snacks.  
"Sure, why not?" Duo shrugged, taking it from his comrade. "I've eaten weirder things. Can't be worse than snails at any rate."  
"You've had escargot?"  
"No, live snails." Duo stuffed the cracker in his mouth, chewed a few times, and swallowed. "Not bad."  
"Why would you eat live snails?" Quatre asked, keeping a neutral expression.  
"Better than the alternatives," Duo said, leaning forward to assemble another cracker. "When ya live on the street ya take what you can get. You can only nick from a store so many times before the owner gets wise, and pick pocketing is pretty hard when everyone expects it; so that leaves scrounging for food or prostitution."  
"You lived on the streets?"  
"We didn't all grow up in the lap of luxury like you did, you know." Quatre looked embarrassed and couldn't meet Duo's eye. "I probably wasn't the only one of us who's had experience with 'rough living' either; I'd wager that Heero spent a little time on the streets too." Duo's eyes darkened as the fallen pilot's name left his lips.  
"What are you doing to that fish!?" Quatre exclaimed. Duo glanced down at the sprat in his hand. "You're _peeling_ a sprat!"  
"The scales are prickly," Duo offered by way of explanation. Quatre giggled. Duo continued dissecting the tiny fish, splitting it in half the long way. "Oooh, looky!" Duo pulled something out. "Fish spine!" Quatre turned green.  
"I think I've lost my appetite!" Quatre declared.  
"Let me guess, next you're going to say: 'Didn't your mother tell you not to play with your food?'"  
"No, it never occurred to me," Quatre said. "I guess because I don't really have a mother. I was grown in a lab, and I never met my biological mother."  
"I don't remember _my_ mother, so I guess that's one thing we sorta have in common."  
The unfortunate sprat had by this time been reduced to a pile of flakes on Duo's cracker, which Duo proceeded to bolt down.  
"Don't you ever take time to enjoy your food?"  
"Not really; like I said, most of the food I ate was pretty gross, so I guess I've gotten in the habit of eating it fast so that I don't have to taste it much."  
"You...mentioned prostitution...um..."  
"Did I ever sell myself?" Duo finished, with a natural-seeming smile. "Yeah; a couple times, when I was really desperate." Duo snorted. "Listen to me, I'm suddenly talking like I'm in confessional; though I certainly never confessed _that_ to Father Maxwell."  
"I'm gay," Quatre blurted out, blushing madly. "Since we're confessing things. In a way...I think it would probably be best if I die in this war. My father had me made to be heir to his company. Our colony is really old fashioned, women aren't allowed to inherit; I have twenty-nine sisters, if my father dies without a male heir they'll be left with nothing. If I die, my father will have to make another heir; one that isn't defective."  
"That's a dumb reason to go to war!" Duo exclaimed. "Who the hell gave you a Gundam with that rationalization!?"  
"That's not the reason I decided to fight! And I'm not really planning to get myself killed!" Quatre sighed. "Just...sometimes I think that way...that's all."  
The two of them glared at each other for a moment, then Duo chuckled. "So, you're gay, huh?" Duo asked, locking his fingers behind his head and leaning back against the back of the couch. "I guess that makes two things we have in common then."  
  
~*~  
  
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